The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete
better than they, you can profit by your contempt for their defects,
while the praise of others will incite you to farther merits.
[Footnote: The contradiction by this passage of the foregoing
chapter is only apparent. It is quite clear, from the nature of the
reasoning which is here used to prove that it is more improving to
work with others than to work alone, that the studies of pupils only
are under consideration here.]
496.
OF STUDYING, IN THE DARK, WHEN YOU WAKE, OR IN BED BEFORE YOU GO TO
SLEEP.
I myself have proved it to be of no small use, when in bed in the
dark, to recall in fancy the external details of forms previously
studied, or other noteworthy things conceived by subtle speculation;
and this is certainly an admirable exercise, and useful for
impressing things on the memory.
497.
OF THE TIME FOR STUDYING SELECTION OF SUBJECTS.
Winter evenings ought to be employed by young students in looking
over the things prepared during the summer; that is, all the
drawings from the nude done in the summer should be brought together
and a choice made of the best [studies of] limbs and bodies among
them, to apply in practice and commit to memory.
OF POSITIONS.
After this in the following summer you should select some one who is
well grown and who has not been brought up in doublets, and so may
not be of stiff carriage, and make him go through a number of agile
and graceful actions; and if his muscles do not show plainly within
the outlines of his limbs that does not matter at all. It is enough
that you can see good attitudes and you can correct [the drawing of]
the limbs by those you studied in the winter.
[Footnote: An injunction to study in the evening occurs also in No.
524.]
On the productive power of minor artists (498-501).
498.
He is a poor disciple who does not excel his master.
499.
Nor is the painter praiseworthy who does but one thing well, as the
nude figure, heads, draperies, animals, landscapes or other such
details, irrespective of other work; for there can be no mind so
inept, that after devoting itself to one single thing and doing it
constantly, it should fail to do it well.
[Footnote: In MANZI'S edition (p. 502) the painter G. G. Bossi
indignantly remarks on this passage. "_Parla il Vince in questo
luogo come se tutti gli artisti avessero quella sublimita d'ingegno
capace di abbracciare tutte le cose, di cui era egli dotato"_ And he
then mentions the case of CLAUDE LORRAIN. But he overlooks the fact
that in Leonardo's time landscape painting made no pretensions to
independence but was reckoned among the details (_particulari_,
lines 3, 4).]
500.
THAT A PAINTER IS NOT ADMIRABLE UNLESS HE IS UNIVERSAL.
Some may distinctly assert that those persons are under a delusion
who call that painter a good master who can do nothing well but a
head or a figure. Certainly this is no great achievement; after
studying one single thing for a life-time who would not have
attained some perfection in it? But, since we know that painting
embraces and includes in itself every object produced by nature or
resulting from the fortuitous actions of men, in short, all that the
eye can see, he seems to me but a poor master who can only do a
figure well. For do you not perceive how many and various actions
are performed by men only; how many different animals there are, as
well as trees, plants, flowers, with many mountainous regions and
plains, springs and rivers, cities with public and private
buildings, machines, too, fit for the purposes of men, divers
costumes, decorations and arts? And all these things ought to be
regarded as of equal importance and value, by the man who can be
termed a good painter.
501.
OF THE MISERABLE PRETENCES MADE BY THOSE WHO FALSELY AND UNWORTHILY
ACQUIRE THE NAME OF PAINTERS.
Now there is a certain race of painters who, having studied but
little, must need take as their standard of beauty mere gold and
azure, and these, with supreme conceit, declare that they will not
give good work for miserable payment, and that they could do as well
as any other if they were well paid. But, ye foolish folks! cannot
such artists keep some good work, and then say: this is a costly
work and this more moderate and this is average work and show that
they can work at all prices?
A caution against one-sided study.
502.
HOW, IN IMPORTANT WORKS, A MAN SHOULD NOT TRUST ENTIRELY TO HIS
MEMORY WITHOUT CONDESCENDING TO DRAW FROM NATURE.
Any master who should venture to boast that he could remember all
the forms and effects of nature would certainly appear to me to be
graced with extreme ignorance, inasmuch as these effects are
infinite and our memory is not extensive enough to retain them.
Hence, O! painter, beware lest the lust of gain should supplant in
you the dignity of art; for the acquisition of glory is a much
greater thing than the glory of riches. Hence, for these and other
reasons which might be given, first strive in drawing to represent
your intention to the eye by expressive forms, and the idea
originally formed in your imagination; then go on taking out or
putting in, until you have satisfied yourself. Then have living men,
draped or nude, as you may have purposed in your work, and take care
that in dimensions and size, as determined by perspective, nothing
is left in the work which is not in harmony with reason and the
effects in nature. And this will be the way to win honour in your
art.
How to acquire universality (503-506).
503.
OF VARIETY IN THE FIGURES.
The painter should aim at universality, because there is a great
want of self-respect in doing one thing well and another badly, as
many do who study only the [rules of] measure and proportion in the
nude figure and do not seek after variety; for a man may be well
proportioned, or he may be fat and short, or tall and thin, or
medium. And a painter who takes no account of these varieties always
makes his figures on one pattern so that they might all be taken for
brothers; and this is a defect that demands stern reprehension.
504.
HOW SOMETHING MAY BE LEARNT EVERYWHERE.
Nature has beneficently provided that throughout the world you may
find something to imitate.
505.
OF THE MEANS OF ACQUIRING UNIVERSALITY.
It is an easy matter to men to acquire universality, for all
terrestrial animals resemble each other as to their limbs, that is
in their muscles, sinews and bones; and they do not vary excepting
in length or in thickness, as will be shown under Anatomy. But then
there are aquatic animals which are of great variety; I will not try
to convince the painter that there is any rule for them for they are
of infinite variety, and so is the insect tribe.
506.
PAINTING.
The mind of the painter must resemble a mirror, which always takes
the colour of the object it reflects and is completely occupied by
the images of as many objects as are in front of it. Therefore you
must know, Oh Painter! that you cannot be a good one if you are not
the universal master of representing by your art every kind of form
produced by nature. And this you will not know how to do if you do
not see them, and retain them in your mind. Hence as you go through
the fields, turn your attention to various objects, and, in turn
look now at this thing and now at that, collecting a store of divers
facts selected and chosen from those of less value. But do not do
like some painters who, when they are wearied with exercising their
fancy dismiss their work from their thoughts and take exercise in
walking for relaxation, but still keep fatigue in their mind which,
though they see various objects [around them], does not apprehend
them; but, even when they meet friends or relations and are saluted
by them, although they see and hear them, take no more cognisance of
them than if they had met so much empty air.
Useful games and exercises (507. 508).
507.
OF GAMES TO BE PLAYED BY THOSE WHO DRAW.
When, Oh draughtsmen, you desire to find relaxation in games you
should always practise such things as may be of use in your
profession, by giving your eye good practice in judging accurately
of the breadth and length of objects. Thus, to accustom your mind to
such things, let one of you draw a straight line at random on a
wall, and each of you, taking a blade of grass or of straw in his
hand, try to cut it to the length that the line drawn appears to him
to be, standing at a distance of 10 braccia; then each one may go up
to the line to measure the length he has judged it to be. And he who
has come nearest with his measure to the length of the pattern is
the best man, and the winner, and shall receive the prize you have
settled beforehand. Again you should take forshortened measures:
that is take a spear, or any other cane or reed, and fix on a point
at a certain distance; and let each one estimate how many times he
judges that its length will go into that distance. Again, who will
draw best a line one braccio long, which shall be tested by a
thread. And such games give occasion to good practice for the eye,
which is of the first importance in painting.
508.
A WAY OF DEVELOPING AND AROUSING THE MIND TO VARIOUS INVENTIONS.
I cannot forbear to mention among these precepts a new device for
study which, although it may seem but trivial and almost ludicrous,
is nevertheless extremely useful in arousing the mind to various
inventions. And this is, when you look at a wall spotted with
stains, or with a mixture of stones, if you have to devise some
scene, you may discover a resemblance to various landscapes,
beautified with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide
valleys and hills in varied arrangement; or again you may see
battles and figures in action; or strange faces and costumes, and an
endless variety of objects, which you could reduce to complete and
well drawn forms. And these appear on such walls confusedly, like
the sound of bells in whose jangle you may find any name or word you
choose to imagine.
II.
THE ARTIST'S STUDIO.--INSTRUMENTS AND HELPS FOR THE APPLICATION OF
PERSPECTIVE.--ON JUDGING OF A PICTURE.
On the size of the studio.
509.
Small rooms or dwellings discipline the mind, large ones weaken it.
On the construction of windows (510-512).
510.
The larger the wall the less the light will be.
511.
The different kinds of light afforded in cellars by various forms of
windows. The least useful and the coldest is the window at _a_. The
most useful, the lightest and warmest and most open to the sky is
the window at _b_. The window at _c_ is of medium utility.
[Footnote: From a reference to the notes on the right light for
painting it becomes evident that the observations made on
cellar-windows have a direct bearing on the construction of the
studio-window. In the diagram _b_ as well as in that under No. 510
the window-opening is reduced to a minimum, but only, it would seem,
in order to emphasize the advantage of walls constructed on the plan
there shown.]
512.
OF THE PAINTER'S WINDOW AND ITS ADVANTAGE.
The painter who works from nature should have a window, which he can
raise and lower. The reason is that sometimes you will want to
finish a thing you are drawing, close to the light.
Let _a b c d_ be the chest on which the work may be raised or
lowered, so that the work moves up and down and not the painter. And
every evening you can let down the work and shut it up above so that
in the evening it may be in the fashion of a chest which, when shut
up, may serve the purpose of a bench.
[Footnote: See Pl. XXXI, No. 2. In this plate the lines have
unfortunately lost their sharpness, for the accidental loss of the
negative has necessitated a reproduction from a positive. But having